Provisions and Potential Impacts of the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/24/08.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

Estimates of Minnesota Farm-Level Crop Commodity Payments under New House Framework

The objective of this study is to compare commodity payments under current Federal farm policy with the previous Senate and Administration proposals and the recently released “2008 Farm Bill Conference: House Agriculture Committee-Developed Concept for a Farm Bill Spending Framework.” Projections of crop revenue and government payments are made using historical yield data for each example farm, the county, and the nation; historical price data; and statistical distributions and relationships of these yields and prices. Using 2007 FAPRI price projections (which are closer to the prices expected in the next few years when a new farm bill will be in force), expected Total Government Payments (TGP) are almost entirely attributed to the fixed direct payments under all these proposals. Since commodity prices are so far above their “target levels” the possibility of a counter cyclical price or revenue payment or a loan deficiency payment is highly unlikely. TGP under the alternative policies follows a similar pattern on the example corn and soybean farms and a slightly different but fairly consistent pattern for the example wheat and soybean farms. For the corn and soybean example farms in southern Minnesota, the HB-RCCP and USDA proposals generate very similar levels of TGPs compared to current policy. HB-RCCP provides a slightly higher expected TGP than CP for all example farms except for one and higher TGP than USDA for all farms. ACR is estimated to provide lower TGP for all example corn and soybean farms. For the example wheat and soybean farms in northwest Minnesota, the results are mixed. Compared to the other three proposals, ACR provides higher TGP for 2 of the 6 example farms. Each of the proposals does reduce risk as measured by CV. We note ACR is not quite as efficient at risk reduction except for two wheat/soybean farms in northwest Minnesota.Farm Management,

Alternative Farm Bills: Impacts on Minnesota Farms

With the current federal farm bill set to expire at the end of September this year, many proposals have been made to redesign the next bill. The objectives of this study are to compare the current policy with major proposed alternatives and estimate the potential payments of farmers under each of the alternatives. The alternative policies are compared in two ways. First a historical comparison of crop revenue and estimated government payments for individual farms are made under each proposal from 2002-2005. In a second comparison, projections of crop revenue and government payments are made using historical yields for each farm, county, and nation; historical price data; statistical distributions of the yields and prices including averages, standard deviations, and correlations; and each proposal's rules for calculating payments. For yields, deviations from the yield trend are used. In three of the four years and on average, the American Soybean Association (ASA) proposal has higher payments and thus higher total gross revenue compared to current policy and the other three proposals. Since the ASA proposal raises both loan rates and target prices, the higher payments should be expected. The proposed USDA policy is estimated to have a slightly higher average government payment and total gross revenue compared to current policy, but it is not higher than current policy in each year. Lower total payments under the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) proposal are due to higher than average revenues during 2002-05. The revenue insurance proposal does not create any indemnity payments in 2002-05 again due to the higher revenues in these years. Projections of potential revenue also show the ASA proposal to have higher estimated payments. Average government payments are estimated to be slightly higher under current policy compared to USDA's and NCGA's proposals. Since federal budget concerns may not allow the higher payments under the ASA proposal, the choice between the USDA and NCGA proposal may hinge on the level of administrative costs which would appear to be lower with the USDA proposal since it is based on one national estimate of revenue versus many county and individual calculations under the NCGA proposal. The potential use of multi-commodity revenue insurance will hinge on either the ability to provide additional support in fixed direct payments and green payments and larger federal budget concerns.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Risk Analysis of Organic Cropping Systems in Minnesota

When all strategies received conventional market prices, 4-year cropping sequences had greater net returns than 2-year sequences, and the organic input, 4-year strategy had the highest net return. Adding 50% of the estimated organic premium, the 4-year, organic strategy dominated all low- and high-purchased input strategies.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

MICROCOMPUTER BUDGET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The enterprise budget, whole farm cash flow, and income statement are fundamental tools of farm and ranch management. The "Microcomputer Budget Management System" (MBMS) is a microcomputer software package that facilitates the storage and use of information for crop and livestock budgeting. It performs the calculations for several enterprise budgeting formats and for preparation of whole farm resource use reports and financial statements. The MBMS also includes internal machinery and irrigation cost calculation routines. MBMS was developed for use by extension staff, researchers, lenders, consultants, and operators of diversified farms and ranches with many enterprises that use enterprise and whole farm budgeting for analysis and planning activities. The flexibility and detailed nature of the program requires the user to have knowledge of enterprise budgeting and operation of complex computer programs. This paper presents a discussion of the features and capabilities of the software and the computational procedures used in the cost calculations.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

MODELING ANIMAL AND FORAGE RESPONSE TO FERTILIZATION OF ANNUAL RANGELANDS

The response functions for forage, animal gain, and stocking rate were estimated from data obtained in a three-year fertilization experiment on California annual range. Degree-days; the interactions between degree-days and nitrogen, between degree-days and phosphorus-sulphur, and between nitrogen and phosphorus-sulphur; and the lagged forage variable were significant in explaining the variations in forage growth, animal gain, and stocking rate. The impact of PS was more important in interaction with DD or N than by itself. The correct impact of moisture was not found due to misspecification of the variable in the model. The models for the first year and the three years combined were well behaved; however, the models for the last two years combined neither explained adequately nor behaved well.Livestock Production/Industries,

Extension Educators\u27 Views of Scholarship and Performance Evalutation Criteria

In response to an organizational goal of increasing scholarship, a survey of faculty and staff in the University of Minnesota Extension Service was conducted to better understand how they define scholarship, its extent of use in their everyday work, and its importance within performance evaluation. While Regional Extension Educators strongly believe they should enhance their scholarship, they also believe that it should not occur at the expense of program management, delivery, and development. In fact, they saw those factors as being more important in performance evaluations than scholarship

Magnitude of behavioral deficits varies with job-related chlorpyrifos exposure levels among Egyptian pesticide workers.

Chronic occupational exposure to organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) is consistently associated with deficits on behavioral tests when compared to unexposed comparison groups. However, a dose-response relationship has yet to be established, leading some to doubt an association between occupational OP exposure and behavioral deficits. Pesticide application teams in Egypt who are primarily exposed to one OP, chlorpyrifos (CPF), were recruited into a field assessment. Trail Making A and the more challenging Trail Making B tests were administered to 54 engineers (who supervise the pesticide application process, usually from the side of the field), 59 technicians (who guide the pesticide applicators in the field), 31 applicators (who mix and apply pesticides using knapsack sprayers), and 150 controls (who did not work in the fields) at two different times during the OP application season as well as immediately after applications had ended and 1.5 months later. All participants were males since only males work on pesticide application teams in Egypt. Urinary levels of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), a specific metabolite of CPF, confirmed the pattern of lower to higher CPF exposures from engineers to technicians to applicators, and these were all greater than urinary metabolite levels in controls. A consistent relationship between job title and performance speed on the behavioral task was observed: Controls had the best (fastest) performance on Trail Making A and B tests throughout the application season, and applicators had significantly slower performance than engineers on Trail Making A (p = 0.015) and B (p = 0.003). However, individual urinary TCPy, blood acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) levels did not predict individual performance. This study identifies a dose-related effect based on job title, which serves as a surrogate for chronic exposure in that differing job titles exhibit varying group exposure levels. The results establish that chronic occupational exposure to chlorpyrifos is neurotoxic and suggest that the classic biomarkers of recent CPF exposure are not predictive of chronic exposure effects

Work Readiness of New Graduate Physical Therapists for Private Practice in Australia: Academic Faculty, Employer, and Graduate Perspectives

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to explore academic faculty, employer, and recent graduate perspectives of the work readiness of Australian new graduate physical therapists for private practice and factors that influence new graduate preparation and transition to private practice. METHODS: This study used a mixed-methods design with 3 surveys and 12 focus groups. A total of 112 participants completed a survey, and 52 participated in focus groups. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Triangulation across participant groups and data sources was undertaken. RESULTS: Australian new graduate physical therapists were perceived to be "somewhat ready" for private practice and "ready" by their third year of employment. Participants proposed that new graduates bring enthusiasm, readiness to learn, and contemporary, research-informed knowledge. New graduates were also perceived to find autonomous clinical reasoning and timely caseload management difficult; to have limited business, marketing, and administration knowledge and skills; and to present with underdeveloped confidence, communication, and interpersonal skills. Factors perceived to influence graduate transition included private practice experience, such as clinical placements and employment; employer and client expectations of graduate capabilities; workplace support; university academic preparation and continuing education; and individual graduate attributes and skills. CONCLUSION: Australian new graduate physical therapists have strengths and limitations in relation to clinical, business, and employability knowledge and skills. New graduate work readiness and transition may be enhanced by additional private practice experience, employer and client expectation management, provision of workplace support, and tailored university and continuing education. IMPACT: The number of new graduate physical therapists employed in private practice in Australia is increasing; however, until this study, their work readiness for this setting was unknown. This exploration of new graduate performance in private practice and transition can help to increase understanding and enhancement of work-readiness